In February, at the Berlinale Co-Production Market, Ukrainian writer-director Antonio Lukich was honoured with the prestigious Eurimages Co-production Development Award, amounting to €20,000, for his project Screaming Girl, which is being produced by the company ForeFilms (see the news). We caught up with him to get the low-down on his upcoming opus.

Cineuropa: Congratulations on receiving the Eurimages Co-production Development Award for your project Screaming Girl. Can you share with us the inspiration behind the film and what audiences can expect from it?
Antonio Lukich: We live in a time when reality brings practically nothing but disappointment, and therefore the film, in a sense, is also being made without any inspiration. I don’t really care whether it turns out well or not; I just want to convey a keen sense of what it means to be a human today and how uncomfortable it is. I'm being honest about this. I have already made two successful films [2019’s My Thoughts Are Silent [+leggi anche:
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scheda film]] in the past reality, before the war, and now it’s time for some experimentation.

Co-production in the film industry often involves collaboration across borders and cultures. How has the co-production process influenced your creative vision for Screaming Girl, and what challenges or opportunities has it presented during development?
Any restrictions are a blessing for an auteur. You could set your story in any city in the world, but it just so happens that the best co-producers in the world live in Dublin. Therefore, I know for sure that my heroine’s adventures will happen there, in a beautiful, green city. I've already started learning Irish slang – and I even know how to swear a little!

Winning the Eurimages Co-production Development Award is a significant achievement. How do you envision this support impacting the production and realisation of Screaming Girl, both artistically and practically?
A very important endorsement of the project took place in Berlin. It was as if we’d received confirmation that the film is “cool”. We didn't deceive anyone or conceal the fact that the story was strange, yet everyone seemed to like it. In addition to this prize from Eurimages, which will allow us to visit Ireland and work on the development stage with local professionals, we have received an incredible injection of inspiration and now have the feeling that we are part of this wonderful European film family.